Android One is a sham

I purchased a Xiaomi A1 with Android One because I expected a Pixel-like experience. After buying it, it’s evident Android One is nothing more than a sham: the updates DO NOT come directly from Google, and you still get a lot of bloatware from the OEM.

Google’s website claims you’ll get their updates from them and no bloatware, and that’s demonstrably false.

Updates (or lack of them)

Do you think that with Android One you will get timely updates directly from Google? Well, you won’t. Oreo came out in August; it’s still December and this mobile has yet to see 8.0, let alone 8.1!

So there’s no Oreo in the works? Well, actually, there is. Do you want to take part of the beta? It’s a bit late, but you could’ve done it. You only needed to:

Download the app of the MIUI forum and register. Get it from the Play Store or get the apk file directly from the forum (yes, that’s very secure).

Send someone (Xiaomi employees?) your two IMEIs in a private message.

If you’re one of the chosen ones, download the QQ app and register. QQ is a Chinese instant messenger that, as far as they know, is not controlled by Xiaomi. (So they can build dozens of apps and a whole ecosystem around their mobile phones but they cannot write something to interact with other users of the beta. Why don’t they use their forums for that?)

Quite a few requirements, taking into account what you’re about to do is… well, yes. You will be working for free. I know Google also releases betas of Android, but they do so so developers can make sure their apps work with upcoming versions of the OS. Xiaomi, on the other hand, just wants you to work for them for free. Fuck that.

Bloatware (or its existence)

And this is arguably the worst problem there is. Not only does the mobile come with lots of bloatware from Google (which is to be expected), there’s lots (and I mean lots) of bloatware from Xiaomi!

(My ass.)

This is a partial list of all the bloatware included with the mobile. And I say partial because there’s probably some stuff I have missed:

Mi Store, in case you want to buy more hardware from Xiaomi, I guess.

Mi Community, which looks like a client for their forums. I don’t know.

Mi Camera: this one is funny. They changed the name and the icon of this app to make it look like the A1 comes with the standard Google camera app from Pixel mobiles, but it’s the Mi Camera instead.

Mi Remote. That’s okay, because this mobile comes with an infrared port, but hey, just let me download the app from the Play Store if I want to.

Mi Explorer, a file explorer (because Files from Google, which also comes installed by default, is not enough.)

Mi Drop, I haven’t opened it and it’s not obvious what it does.

PAI: Play Auto Installer (package name: android.autoinstalls.config.Xiaomi.tissot), an app that installs apps on demand from the Play Store.

Caping: I don’t know what it does, I’ve never opened it and the description of the Play Store is written in a language I do not understand. It looks like a news reader.

Google Indic Keyboard

Google Korean Input

Google Pinyin Input

Google Zhuyin Input

Feedback: an app from Xiaomi that lets you send them feedback. They gave this app the “usage access” permission, which means it can know which apps you use. You can’t uninstall or disable it.

Spock: another app with “usage access” permissions that I believe sends analytics of your usage of the mobile back to the mothership. At least that’s what I have determined from running the “strings” command on it. Really shady, and you can’t disable it either.
During the first boot they do ask you if you want the mobile to call home, but should I trust they will honour my decision? I’ll have to call it spyware.

I have only had this mobile for a few days but I suspect that when it came out it had only a pair of apps from Xiaomi but they have been adding more and more with every small update.

I don’t blame Google for all of this; I think Xiaomi is doing it without their consent, but Google could at least have obtained one of these mobiles to check from time to time what Xiaomi is doing to them. This level of negligence is the norm with Google, so I will just assume they don’t care and move on.